Young people are making a difference
Stage Your Voice
For three seasons starting in 2019/2020, we have provided a number of young people from The Hague with a musical stage to share their message with a wider audience. In various art forms (spoken word, singing or poetry), they talk about topics important to them such as safety, inclusivity, mental health, youth care, discrimination and livability in the neighborhood. Participants receive musical, conceptual and textual guidance to translate their message into a finished musical product. They spread their musical message through music videos, performances and radio appearances.
Stage Your Voice encourages special encounters, leads to new insights and contributes to creative opportunities for participants as well as for our musicians and audiences.
"Even if I only touch one person with my story ..."
- Alicia, participant Stage Your Voice 2021
The practical side
Young people ages 16 to 24 can audition annually for Stage Your Voice. The five who manage to place will receive musical, conceptual and textual guidance to translate their message into a finished musical product.
Stage Your Voice encourages special encounters, leads to new insights and contributes to creative opportunities for participants as well as for our musicians and audiences.
The participants not only get the chance to share their stories on stage, but are also guests of local media like Den Haag FM. In addition, we record video clips with them that we distribute through our own social media channels and those of partners. For each individual topic of our participants, we look for partners who connect on this specific theme.
We realize Stage Your Voice in collaboration with various community, cultural and business partners:
Haags HipHop Centrum, DAPA, ROC Mondriaan, Walvis & Mosmans, Musicon, PAARD, Popradar, In het Koorenhuis, Theater De Vaillant, Theater De Nieuwe Regentes, Museum Beelden aan Zee, Amnesty International, COC Haaglanden, SchuldenLab070, opvang Perspektief, Stichting Stop Straatintimidatie, JulianaPlaza, MIND.
Retrospective Stage Your Voice 2021
During the second edition of Stage Your Voice, a total of six young people - Nadia, Myrthe, Vera, Alicia, Henno and Hacer - performed with musicians from the Residentie Orkest.
Due to the corona pandemic, venues had to close. As a result, the Stage Your Voice participants shared their story to audiences through a video clip. Recordings took place at unique locations in the city.
With these recordings we reached relevant target groups through online channels, not only addressing our own channels, but also asking partners to share the clips with their own supporters.
"With Stage Your Voice, I get a chance to share my story with people. I hope my song 'A Safe Home' will help other children. I am grateful for this opportunity. "
- Nadia, participant Stage Your Voice 2021 | After performing at the SchuldenLab CEO symposium in Amare
Retrospective Stage Your Voice 2020
By the summer of 2020, we made recordings of Stage Your Voice performances in special places in The Hague. For example, Reno, Benita & Jemaya performed their spoken word about racism and exclusion on the roof of The Hague's pop stage PAARD. Raquel performed her song about her coming-out in front of the Homomonument in The Hague. Whitney, together with rappers from The Hague HipHop Center, talked about the importance of freedom and being able to be who you want to be in Skatepark Sweatshop.
On Sunday, October 4, 2020 Stage Your Voice 2020 participants, together with musicians from the Residentie Orkest from the Zuiderstrandtheater, presented topics they consider important.
Watch all performances back on our YouTube channel.
Rabobank region of The Hague is the corporate partner of SYMPHONY 2030
